Strauss attributed the defeat in Galle to a series of mistakes, both with the bat and in the field. The most glaring were the two dropped catches by Monty Panesar on the first day.

The spinner put down Mahela Jayawardene twice in the final hour, firstly on the square-leg boundary off James Anderson with the Sri Lanka captain on 147 and again at mid-on off the bowling of Broad.

However, Strauss insisted Panesar would recover from the setback.

A TALE OF TWO AVERAGES

Name

2012 average

Career

A Strauss

25.4

41.2

A Cook

13.5

47.9

J Trott

35.6

53.6

K Pietersen

12.5

48.2

I Bell

14.5

46.8

M Prior

33

43.6

"He is very disappointed and down with himself for dropping those catches," Strauss told BBC Test Match Special.

"But we are human - we all make mistakes. We are all behind him because we win together, and we lose together."

The one positive that Strauss took from the final day was a seventh Test century for Trott, who faced 266 balls before he was caught at leg gully by Tillakaratne Dilshan off the bowling of Suraj Randiv for 112.

"The way Jonathan Trott performed was outstanding," he said. "He showed a combination of technique and application and skill to get that hundred.

"It was an incredible combination of the attack and defence that you need to score runs in these conditions. He did not deserve to be on the losing side.

"For a while there, it looked like we would pull off the unlikely, but ultimately we left ourselves with too much to do."

England's target was inflated by the 87 runs put on by Sri Lanka's final two wickets in their second innings, a late rally Strauss' counterpart Jayawardene suggested helped turn the game.

"[To set] 340 was a bonus," he said.

"I thought 275 would be competitive so with 340 we had the luxury of 40 or 50 runs. That gave the impetus to the bowlers who were much more relaxed going out there and bowling to the English batsmen."